if at first you do succeed

When the third quarter of spokes was being fitted and it became apparent that they were going to be slightly (if not immensely) longer than web-guide and book were anticipating I was faintly worried that some of the measurements I'd fed into several spoke length calculators were wrong or the spokes weren't the length I'd ordered and that I might have had to undo everything and re-lace it as four-cross to use up a bit more length. 'Leave three turns of thread beneath the nipple' is going to have to be about three turns of thread poking out of the back of the nipple and worrying the rim tape by the time everything is fully-tensioned, though getting everything to uniform low tension has been reasonably straightforward by just tightening the nipples from the rim side until the spoke abuts the tip of the screwdriver. It already feels much more solid than the cheapy temporary wheel I'm currently using and seems (though I haven't yet measured) only slightly heavier than the Shimano R500 I recently escaped from, despite having twelve more spokes (and a full-thickness braking surface). Definitely something I'd do again, though when this is finished I'll have a spare front and spare back and no need for any more wheels for the forseeable future.